Under his tenure as lead pastor at RiverTree Christian Church, the Rev. Greg Nettle has grown the congregation from 100 members to more than 3,000, with campuses in Jackson Township, Massillon, Lake Township and Canal Fulton.

But after nearly two decades at the helm, Nettle is turning his sights on a bigger audience. At the end of the year, Nettle will step down to assume the presidency of Stadia, a global church-planting ministry based in Irvine, Calif.

A partner of Provision Ministries, Stadia works to connect struggling congregations, and helps them to re-emerge as healthy.

Nettle noted that, despite the plethora of churches, only about 18 percent of Ohioans attend services on a semi-regular basis. That statistic, he said, also disproves the belief that megachurches are seeing growth.

“When you’re insulated in the megachurch world, you think it’s doing so well in the U.S., but it’s not,” he said.

Nettle said that while megachurches do a lot of good, if leaders aren’t careful, the effort required to maintain them can usurp ministry.

In a statement, Provision President Larry Winger said very few people could have simultaneously sustained a church the size of RiverTree while running an international ministry.

“Greg took the long look of eternity and decided to throw himself fully into the work of Stadia for maximum impact on a global scale,” Winger said in his statement.

Practically every community has half-filled churches. Why plant more?

“The most effective way to reach people is through new church plantings,” Nettle explained. “We must raise the value of children in those church plants. I believe all children are at risk, be it from affluence or poverty.”

“God has wrecked my heart over children at risk,” Nettle said. “It’s shifted from being interested in building my own kingdom, to building God’s kingdom, through church planting.”

Throughout his ministry, raising money for children has been a priority for Nettle. In August, he was part of a team that climbed Mount Rainier in Washington to raise money for the Christian Children’s Home of Ohio. RiverTree’s congregation has committed to supporting 2,000 needy children through Compassion International.

According to research published by Stadia, 85 percent of Christians decide to embrace Christianity between the ages 4 and 14.

“When you have kids raised in an environment of hope and caring in Jesus’ name, their attitude changes,” he said. “It’s global-changing stuff.”

Nettle, who has an adopted son, said if one family from every church in America would adopt a child out of the foster care system, it would eliminate the need for it.

“Kids have an inherent value to God,” he said.

In a statement, Stadia Executive Director Tom Jones, said the ministry has seen its greatest growth under Nettle. Jones said Stadia is on pace this year to plant 44 churches; 23 in the U.S. and 21 in Latin America.

Nettle said he believes RiverTree can reach 100,000 people in Northeast Ohio.

Noting that the church will be debt-free in 2015, he predicts that its best days are ahead.